Rotale

On the Colle delle Cerese, at 1,036 metres between the villages of Venere and San Veneziano, the local shepherds call this place Rotale. It is an oppidum, a hillfort of the sort that dots these Italian heights, and its double circuit of walls suggests a place that expected trouble. The outer enclosure, 750 metres around, survives mostly as a foundation course, with just a few stretches reaching two courses of limestone blocks. Enough remains to see it was a polygonal wall of early type, rough and Cyclopean in spirit. Two gates pierce this outer ring: one on the north-east, another to the south-west, each about two metres wide. Inside, a second wall divides the compound, built in the same sturdy polygonal style, with a single gate nearly four metres wide. A curious detail: an internal bank runs behind this inner wall, and there may once have been small posterns linking the two circuits, allowing a defender to move swiftly around the entire perimeter. The stones say little, but they say it clearly.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.